Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking 5G Home Internet — Review

For the past seven years I have been very happy with Spectrum (nee. Charter) phone, cable, internet connection but faced with increasing cable TV costs early this year I elected to drop the cable TV connection in favor of internet streaming using the same high speed cable connection. In spite of the 500 mbps internet band width I found I was spending more and more time watching the pinwheel while the TV feed was buffering and I wasn't saving any money on the connection. Finally enough became too much, I decided to take T-Mobile's offer of a two week free trail of 5G Home internet. I am four days into the trial and thought I would share my results with FineTunedMac.

FINDINGS

1. T-Mobile's 5g Home internet is not available in all areas
2. Adding 5G home internet to my existing T-Mobile account and deleting the cable account saved $120 a month.
3. The 5G download speed, ~130mbps, is 25% of what I was getting with cable.
4. The 5G upload speed, is generally unchanged
5. I have yet to see the pinwheel even when watching a 4K movie.
6. there is no noticeable difference in normal network browsing speeds
7. 1 TB downloads are noticeably but not objectionably slower
8. Installation and setup using the Tmobileinternet app on the iPhone took roughly 5 minutes and most of that was finding the optimum location for the 5G gateway. (six inches higher, lower, left, or right can make a significant difference. The app helps — a LOT
9. We had a major thunderstorm night before last, the cable connection was down for two hours, the 5G connection never missed a beat.

CONCLUSIONS

1. SPEED: Will I miss the cable's speed? Probably.
2. COST: Will I miss the cable's cost? Not a bit
3. RELIABILITY: Will I miss the pinwheel? Not a bit
4. VALUE: Is cable's speed worth the cost? Probably not.
5. CONCLUSION: Is the change permanent? After a thoughtful cost/benefit analysis, unless there is a major fail in the next week — YES

DISCLAIMER I have no pecuniary relationship with T-Mobile other than that of a satisfied customer.

It is interesting to see that 5G Home Internet is being offered by a company that does not have any other kind of Internet service, AFAIK. Cellular 5G would be T-Mobile's only option to remain competitive with companies like AT&T and Xfinity that offer both cellular and some sort of different Internet service. It is good to see that they offer a 5G gateway, since cellular can be spotty, depending on the location of towers. Glad that it is working for you.

I suppose things are going to be different over here, but I now get my landline telephone service over broadband (VoIP?). I am constricted to 75 mbps by my choice (£). My understanding is that you can stream a 4K video without issue if you have 35 mbps. So, all my computing and media requirements are satisfied.

The one problem is, if the power goes down, so does my landline. My cell phone still works if I step outside my basement flat.

I have a 5K cell phone, but my broadband is fibre cables. My wife (can you say "Luddite'?) needs the landline.

My annual bill is less than what you have saved by about 60%!

I'm guessing your comms is tax-deductible.

I get around most power interruptions by connecting the WiFi gateway (5G receiver) and the WiFi router to an uninterruptable power supply with battery backup. It will carry the load for about an hour. But your basement flat would probably make 5G home internet a non-starter.


I got my wife an iPhone, and within a week she was the cellphone guru of her circle. But she never would give up the landline even though she never answered or used it.



My ongoing 5G home internet bill will be $40USD a month, which is really low around here, but that is on top of what I was already paying for cellular service for my iPhone, iPad, and Watch.


I wish!

Around here, we are seeing cable and landline coverage areas shrinking and being replaced with 5G and neighborhood WiFi. The telephone company is declining to serve some new developments apparently because there is insufficient demand for landline to pay for the cable plant. For a few years satellite was replacing cable but even that is struggling now. Few of my friends still have "traditional cablevision" and instead are opting for over-the-air digital and/or streamed internet entertainment.

The thing I hate about my FIOS is that not having a cell phone, I'm totally vulnerable to outages, power or phone company. That said, though, we haven't had a power outage around here in many years, and the phone company has gone down for only two 2 hour spells in the dead of night - which I've assumed were for maintenance - in the 5-10 years I've had FIOS.

My favorite thing about my landline is being able to put it on speaker while I'm on hold with customer service. More and more of my "vocal" correspondence is via messaging, and email makes up most of the rest. My phone is pretty much relegated to customer service calls out and confirmation calls from medical professionals in.

My 300 Mbps and phone service combined just went up to $71.month from $67.